The Soviet nuclear disaster at Chernobyl has revived apprehensions in America that nuclear power is a “Faustian bargain,” as it was once dubbed by a leader of the American nuclear power effort. Like Faust's bargain with the devil for sinful pleasures in exchange for the tortures of hell, America's investment in nuclear power promises the luxuries of abundant electricity coupled with the possibility of a catastrophic radioactive accident.

Supporters of nuclear power have argued that the probability of a nuclear accident is so low that society never will have to pay for its Faustian bargain. In a debate that has lasted more than 20 years in this country, probability estimates of a catastrophic nuclear accident have ranged from fewer than one accident every 200 years to one accident every three years.

However, as the accident at the Chernobyl reactor has grimly illustrated, no matter how small the probability, disasters can happen. That reality has led industry experts, regulators, policy makers and the American public to reassess the most disastrous type of accident, known as a “fuel core meltdown,” which was once discounted as so improbable as not to warrant comprehensive safety precautions. The Chernobyl accident was the first full-scale core meltdown in nuclear power history. The results of a half-year of study and debate since Chernobyl have raised some disturbing new safety questions about U.S. nuclear power.